Divine Rights and poor spelling

So I got chewed out on the airplane, coming back from my brother's house last week. This woman was taking all of the overhead space for our row, and when I mentioned that we needed at least some of it (she was seated in the row ahead of ours), she snapped back at me. She went on and on about my thinking I had a divine right just because I was travelling with children, and I already had the opportunity to board early (we boarded late because we had to change a last minute diaper), and how she needed the space too (she was travelling alone, by the way), and then she kept going but I tuned her out. She was practically yelling at me...you know how that is....someone yelling on a plane...I'm sure everyone was watching this encounter.

OK, so I got the carseat installed, got the other boy buckled in, got our stuff stashed under the seats in front of us, she sits down. Then Jon enters (he got walayed at the gate, folding our stroller and tagging our other carseat), hauling his stuff and the rest of mine. I was too distracted with Amory's kicking the seat in front of him and banging the traytable to get a good read on whether the loud woman even registered him, but he was hard to miss so I imagine she saw him weaving to the back of the plane to the row right behind hers. And then during the flight, I glanced over at her (she had a window seat with the seat next to her open) to see what this woman with the nasty attitude was reading, expecting to see her reading a Rush Limbaugh book or a biography on the life of the 'great' Dick Cheney or something...No. Just a normal book. I don't remember the title, but it was her bookmark that caught my attention. It was handmade, blue yarn with the word, 'LOVE' cross-stitched across it. I was so surprised. And then later I saw her grading math homework. She couldn't really be a nasty person, could she? And who am I to judge her. Maybe her definition of love is different than mine. Maybe she grabbed the first bookmark she could find before leaving the house (the other ones say, 'Scum' and 'Heil') and didn't make the connection. Maybe I didn't detach the way I'm supposed to.

So this schoolteacher, who wants to believe in love, said some really coarse things to me, a total stranger, at the beginning of this 2.5 hour flight. I wonder if she replayed any of our encounter during that time up in the air. I thought about it a little; in and out of keeping Amory from pushing the call button again.....Do I think I have a divine right to something because I have children? At the moment I spoke to her-- a moment I would like to do over and would choose not to say anything to her-- I felt I had a right to Row 19's overhead space, seeing how we consumed 4 of the 5 seats in it-- not because I have children. Man, I wish I had thought to say that! Do I demand special treatment because I may be having a difficult time travelling with my kids? It sure isn't easy.... I think the Buddha would have said something about reality being non-reality....allowing myself to experience a reaction to stinging words, learning from that.... Allowing someone to be angry because I don't know what her reality is. And maybe I was asking for too much just because I was travelling with little kids. I mean, I bought the seats. Not the overhead space. Maybe I stepped out of line.

As I look back, it was a snarl of negative energy, that I feel I diffused by letting her vent, completely. I think she got some frustration off her chest. Maybe she felt better having been able to speak her mind....I wonder if she's thinking about it at all.... I felt kind of bad for her. I was happy that it didn't bother me as much as it should have. I write this as an account of something that happened to me. I am sure I might have left her alone, and ingored her actions from the start--as if she would have quickly removed her things from the overhead compartment just because I had said something-- then where would I have been. That would have really been embarrassing.

For the record, I don't think I have a divine right to any special treatment because I have my hands full with my two boys. But whatever help I get, is sure appreciated. I look at motherhood as a privilage and responsibility, not a right. We don't have a right to anything really....our next breath isn't even guaranteed.

And I wish I remembered how to spell better. Gurantee? Gauruntee? Why can't I ever get that word right???